Capital Intelligence raises the credit rating of

Bank of Alexandria

In its recent report, issued in February 2007, Capital Intelligence, the leading credit rating agency in the world, has improved the outlook for Bank of Alexandria to "positive" from "stable. This reflects the marked improvements in the overall indicators and the prospects of growth during the fiscal year 2005/2006.

The report, as a whole, has reflected a positive rating of the Bank's activity and market status. CI has attributed the raising of the "Outlook" rating to the recent significant changes in the Bank's management and ownership structure after Intesa Sanpaolo owned the majority stake in the Bank, the strong capital base and the large liquid assets.

In addition, the report has also indicated the notable improvement in the Bank's loan portfolio, especially after recovering the classified debts owed by the public sector, the stable sources of finance from the wide branch network, the ability to mobilize customer deposits, and the adequacy of loan provisions.

CI has also highlighted the Bank's strong capital adequacy ratio which is better than other larger banks on historical basis.